Education Ecosystem Blog

Coding non-profits are organizations that want to improve the state of programming and computer science education, and any associated fields. Currently, there are hundreds of coding non-profits around the world. By taking a different approach  from a business focusing on just making profits, these organizations focus on a social cause of improving access to quality coding, and aim to bring the best education to all at a free or very low cost.

Accessibility to the masses is the key here. On our platform, we have seen multiple broadcasters associated with coding non-profits share their experience and knowledge with the help of real world projects. Coding non-profits can be used by anyone in their area of operation, or worldwide if it is online. Our platform gives a significant boost to coding non-profits in reaching their target audience and improving the state of computer science for everyone.

Also, check out a similar publication in this field,  America’s Best Coding Bootcamps.

Powerful and Unique

Coding non-profits are powerful and unique in their own way. They try to reach different sections of the society with the help of networks, both offline and online, by creating an environment where anyone can learn anything regarding programming. There are many non-profits in different sectors that try to achieve the same goal, providing necessary means to the needy audience. The structure of each coding non-profit depends on its nature of implementation and is too diversified to discuss in a single line. For example, Code.org tries to network different partners across the world, whereas edX provides online courses to achieve the same desired effect.

As a beginner, coding non-profits can be a great place to start your coding journey. They are free and most importantly open-sourced. With an open source core, the courses are developed by the best minds in a specific technology. Different universities also release their programming courses and enable anyone with access to the Internet to learn. After you have gained a good understanding of what’s on offer, you can start broadcasting real-world projects and reach a worldwide audience. By doing so, you will also be exposing your skills to potential clients who are looking for talented programmers just like you. Why should you care about coding non-profits?

Coding non-profits

edX

edX is an open-source, nonprofit online Massive Open Online Courses(MOOC) platform. The courses hosted on the platform are contributed by institutes and universities across the world. All the courses contain short videos that ask students to do a small learning exercise each week. Final exams are also held and a passing grade is assigned. Many courses are also provided with on-campus discussion groups. An online textbook and online forums are also provided to ensure a proper learning experience. All the courses are free to take, but if you need a certificate, you will need to pay a small fee. The fee varies according to the course. Currently, there are three types of series/courses.

• Micromasters, where you earn certificate to advance your career.
• Professional Certificate, where you can earn a certificate from advanced courses designed by industry leaders such as Microsoft and Wharton.
• XSeries is a series of courses that aim to improve your working knowledge in a sub-domain.

Earning a  certificate adds value to your learning by enabling you to use it for job hunting.

Location: Online

Technologies Focused: Myriad.

Prices: All courses are free to take. However, you can get a certificate by paying.

“edX is the leading nonprofit, open-source online learning destination, offering high-quality courses from the world’s best universities and institutions to learners everywhere. Founded by Harvard and MIT, edX offers courses in in-demand fields, such as computer science, programming, web development, data science and more, to help learners improve their lives and launch or advance their careers.” — Anant Agarwal, CEO of edX.

Code.org

Code.org is a non-profit organization that aims to provide computer science education to everyone around the world without regard to age, race, color, gender and reach. They try to reach their audience both online and offline. Online courses are created and crafted for all age groups. Their focus is to enable every student to learn computer science, and for those topics to be treated similarly in importance to subjects such as algebra, chemistry, and biology. To enable better reach around the world, they provide 4 different types of courses.

• Hour of Code: A global movement that aims to deliver computer science knowledge to 100 million students spanning across 180 countries.
• Code Studio: This is where all the online courses are created and maintained by code.org.
• Other courses: These include courses that are created and managed by Code.org partners such as W3Schools, LightBot, and Khan Academy.
• Local courses: A big chunk of courses are done in local coding schools to improve accessibility to learners with no or little means to connect to the internet.

Location: Worldwide (both online and offline).

Technology Focused: Myriad.

Price: Free

“Changing education system to integrate computer science. Reached 100 million students with the Hour of Code, and engaged 360,000 educators to teach a follow-on CS course.” — Hadi Partovi, CEO of Code.org

Women Who Code(WWCode)

Women Who Code is a non-profit organization designed to help female engineers, coders and programmers help build each other’s careers. This global organization is completely focused on making women reach their potential in tech. With software development growing at a rapid rate, it is now time to ensure that women take part in the growth spectrum. To ensure that women can participate in the growth, WWCode organizes leadership opportunities, technical events, and learning programs. They also provide CODE reviews, a weekly publication that celebrates the growth of women in technology. The greatest thing that separates WWCode from other organizations is the focus  on women’s role in technology. They also offer a job board and offer networks all over the world.

Location: Worldwide (only offline)

Technologies Focused: Software and web development.

Price: Free

“Women Who Code is an international non-profit dedicated to inspiring women to excel in technology careers by empowering them with the skills, experience, and support that they need for professional advancement.” — Alaina Percival, CEO of WWCode.

Girl Develop it

“Girl Develop it” is yet another non-profit organization that aims to deliver adult women the opportunity to learn high-quality software and web development at a very low cost. They aim to provide a judgment-free environment where everyone can flourish and not be bogged down by gender bias. The whole journey started with just one class in New York City, and now has spread to 53 cities across the USA. They provide free learning materials on their website and in learning classes. All the materials have been developed by instructors, leaders, and industry-leading technologists.

Location: 53 cities across the USA. You can check more information here.

Technologies Focused: HTML, CSS, PHP, MySQL and focus on web development

Price: Free

“Girl Develop It is a national 501(c)3 nonprofit that provides affordable and judgment-free opportunities for adult women interested in learning web and software development through accessible in-person programs. Through affordable classes, GDI helps women of diverse backgrounds achieve their technology goals and build confidence in their careers and their everyday lives. What sets Girl Develop It apart is that we target our programming to adult women (18+) because we believe it’s never too late to learn. Our membership and impact are unparalleled — we’re currently serving 70,000 members in 50+ cities across the US.” — Corinne Warnshuis, CEO of Girls Develop it.

nonPareil Institute

nonPareil Institute is a special nonprofit organization. It dedicates all its resources to adults with autism. According to them, support for autism decreases as the child ages and transitions to adulthood. To make sure that they become a functional part of the society, nonPareil Institute offers programs for these individuals all around the world. Currently, they are working only in Plano and Houston, TX. To make it work, they provide skill-based training, technology/computer labs, at-Home skills tracking and Group Work training. Let’s go through them briefly.

• Skill-Based Training: Skill-based training is all about finding the right solution for the student. It is instructor-led and is customized to the student according to their strengths and weakness. During the training, cutting-edge technology is used to ensure proper learning. The instructors are also experienced in the industry.
• Technology/Computer Lab: To ensure that each student has enough opportunity to learn and grow, computer labs are provided. These labs help the students to learn continuously and practice regularly.
• At-Home Skills Tracking: At-Home skills tracking expands the computer lab and brings it home for the students who are willing to learn. It is achieved by their cutting-edge cloud-based solution known as edge npConnect system.
• Group Work Training: Last, but not the least, group work training tries to prepare students for future jobs and ensure that autism has the least impact on their careers. Speakers covering topics from employment, autism, technology, etc. join the group work training to help learners.

Location: Plano TX, Houston TX

Technologies Focused: Myriad.

Price: There is a monthly participation fee that varies by site.

“At nonPareil Institute, we are training adults with autism specific software tools so that they can build apps for the mobile market. The only reason we have classes here; we have a non-professional Crew that must learn the skills needed to actually do something as part of a development team. We give our Crew the time and space to grow, and industry professionals to guide them. Knowledge is becoming ubiquitous, and one may learn about tools and techniques from the many resources available today. At nonPareil Institute, part of our value exists in the place between an amateur that has learned a bit of programming, and the ability to actually do something with it as a professional, on a team, building something to take to the market.” — Dan Selec, CEO of nonPareil

YesWeCode

YesWeCode is a non-profit organization with an aim to provide underrepresented minorities in an age group of 18-30 a chance to kickstart their career in tech. It is a Dream Corps initiative and offers both technical and non-technical skills to their students. Once the student participates and clears the training, they are offered apprenticeship positions in many small-to-medium-level tech companies.

Location: USA

Price: Free

“#YesWeCode, founded by Van Jones & Prince in 2014, is an empowering intermediary organization with a goal of connecting 100,000 young people of color break into the tech industry by 2020.” — Felix Flores, CEO of YesWeCode

MathAndCoding

Math and Coding are two important subjects that a student should learn. With this aim, MathAndCoding, a non-profit organization, was created in 2014. It grew rapidly and caught the attention of many teenagers and children who never had proper opportunities  with these subjects. Currently, they offer many courses on computing including Visual programming, Android App Development, Java, Robotics, Python, etc. They also offer front-end learning with HTML/CSS/JavaScript combinations. To grab the attention of the students they do Technology Day course where they spend time explaining various technologies and inspiring them to pick up any of the technologies.

Location: Cupertino CA, Mountain View CA, Palo Alto CA, San Jose CA and other cities of Bay Area

Technologies focused: Java, Robotics, Visual Programming, Python, HTML, CSS, JavaScript.

Price: Free

“Our classes are taught by teen volunteers, all of them are high school students. This has worked out very well, as students seem to learn lot more enthusiastically from their peers.” — Nikhil Cheerla, CEO of MathAndCoding

CodeVA

CodeVA is a non-profit organization that works with code.org to improve the state of computer science among the schools in Virginia. They not only offer programs for students, but they also train teachers so that they can help other kids in schools, camps or summer programs. Their Eureka Workshop takes care of different programs such as after-school, in-school and summer programs. The main aim of the workshop is to let kids explore computer science creatively. They also offer a contact point where anyone can participate despite their age group to enhance their skill and better prepare them for the 21st century.

Location: Richmond VA

Technologies focused: Myriad.

Price: Free

“CodeVA combines a K-12 statewide teacher training model, student enrichment programs The combine arts and computer science, and most importantly legislative advocacy to affect major statewide change. This year, CodeVA wrote and advocated for state legislation that makes Virginia the first state in the country to make mandatory ‘computer science and computational thinking, to include coding’ coequal to English and math in its its statewide K-12 learning standards, integrated throughout curriculum beginning in kindergarten and continuing through graduation. CodeVA began in 2013, and was code.org’s first national affiliate partner. Rebecca Dovi, CodeVA director of education, has served on code.org’s education advisory board since that organization’s founding.” — Christopher Dovi, CEO of CodeVA

RailsBridge

RailsBridge is an excellent place to learn Ruby on Rails for anyone who is interested in learning computer science or Rails. During their initial run, they saw much attention but were disappointed with fewer women showing up for the classes. Later on, they focused special sessions for women who want to introduce themselves to Ruby on Rails. Their events try to diversify the audience and bring everyone from a myriad of backgrounds to the industry. Most of their courses are focused on Ruby on Rails, but they also teach HTML and CSS. They also offer Installfest where they take students’ laptops and install the necessary technologies for the next-day workshops.

Location: Started in San Francisco CA. Now, workshops can be done everywhere.

Technologies focused: Ruby, Ruby on Rails, HTML, CSS, JavaScript

Price: Free

“Since 2009, RailsBridge has been putting technology into the hands of marginalized groups, like women and people of color, through free workshops organized by community volunteers.” — Coraline Ada Ehmke, board member of RailsBridge.

Gameheads

If you are in the age group of 15 to 24 and want to become a video game developer, then Gameheads is the place you should hang out. Gameheads is a youth program, specially designed for low-income youth that wants to break into the video game industry. They provide a variety of programs for youths and other audience.

• Core Program: The core program takes care of video game design and development. There are many teaching areas included in this program such as Design Thinking and Critical Ethnography, Project Management, Coding, Art Design, and much more.
• Counseling: They provide counseling sessions for all of their students helping them pursue further education in this field. To ensure their growth, Gameheads offers career, college, and academic counseling. For this, the students need to meet the A-G requirement.
• Professional Development: Professional Development is aimed at students who show promise. They are given chances to work as an intern at a game company or travel to different events across the globe. They are also provided multimedia training and hands-on experience by working on paid contracts.

Location: Oakland CA.

Technologies focused: All technologies surrounding game development.

Price: Free

“Gameheads is a youth program at United Roots’ Youth Impact Hub whose goal is to prepare low-income youth and youth of color (ages 15-24) for a career in the tech and video game industry. The intention of the Gameheads program is to address the knowledge divide but to do so in a way that is focused on one arm of the tech field: electronic entertainment. Participants of Gameheads will learn how to create, code and design games, building skills across a variety of disciplines from visual art, creative writing, design, programming, sound design, animation, game theory and history.” — Damon Packwood, CEO of Gameheads.

Code2040

Code2040 is a non-profit organization that aims to create opportunities for top Latinx and Black engineering talent. Their special focus on underrepresented minorities makes them unique, and their goal is to have a good amount of workforce from the Latinx and black communities. They provide three types of programs.

• CODE2040 Fellows Program:  The CODE2040 Fellows Program is aimed at the extraordinary talent and helps them evaluate their position in the industry by working with the best in Silicon Valley and San Francisco.
• Technical Applicant Prep Program(TAP): A preparatory program that helps young professionals and students to get full-time jobs and internships in the top companies.
• CODE2040 Residency Program: The program is for emerging entrepreneurs who are showing great promise with their products. The program is powered by Google for Entrepreneurs.

Location: San Francisco CA

Technologies focused: Myriad

Price: Free

“CODE2040 is on a mission to create racial equality in the workplace. They work with thousands of the country’s top Black and Latinx technologists, connecting them with companies, resources, mentors, and a professional network to have successful, long-lasting careers in technology.” — Laura Weidman Powers, CEO of CODE2040.

LaunchCode

LaunchCode is another non-profit organization that aims to provide training to students who want to pursue their career in the IT industry. They offer basic to advanced programs and let you choose a great life with livable salaries. Founded in 2013, LaunchCode has seen good growth over the past few years. LaunchCode also helps companies to find talent and ensure that no talent is wasted. They offer many programs for learners.

• LC 101: LC 101 offers in-person mentoring for students that want to pursue their career in technology.
• Hello, World!: Hello, World! offers introductory sessions for coding classes.
• LaunchCode’s CS50X: A 16-week introduction class to CS, it is a live version of the famous Harvard’s Introduction to Computer Science class.
• CodeGirl: Ongoing meetup for girls with different skills, backgrounds, and ages.

Location: Saint Louis MO, Miami FL, Kansas City KS, Rhode Island RI, Seattle WA, Portland OR

Technologies focused: Myriad

Price: Free

“LaunchCode is expanding the tech talent pool for employers across the country through accessible world-class education, and job opportunities for driven, aspiring technologists,” said Mark Bauer, Executive Director of LaunchCode, a St. Louis-headquartered nonprofit with additional offices in Kansas City, MO, Providence, RI and South Florida. Offices will also open in Seattle and Portland in 2017.” — Samantha Williams

TechGirlz

TechGirlz is a non-profit organization for girls. The gender gap in the industry is real, and TechGirlz wants to reduce it and improve girls’ interest in computer science. To do so, they have focused their attention on school-age girls and teach them about computer science. All the workshops are free and provide experts to meet with the girls and teach something new. Schools can partner with TechGirlz to improve women’s role in IT. Over 5,000 girls have attended their workshops, out of which 81% have changed their mind about having a career in technology. TechGirlz also has a good number of volunteers running the campaign globally. They offer two type of programs; one is “TechShopz in Box”, and other is “School/Student Program”.

Location: Philadelphia PA

Technologies focused: Myriad

Price: Free

“TechGirlz creates free, open source courses across a broad range of technology subjects such as gaming, mobile and hardware design that can be downloaded and used by anyone to inspire, challenge and prepare middle school girls for tech-enabled careers.” — Tracey Welson-Rossman, CEO of TechGirlz

The Code Club

The Code Club is a non-profit organization that aims to teach every child how to code irrespective of their background. They offer free clubs for children and let them build and experiment on their own. They started in the UK and now have reached almost every corner of the world, with 6,000 clubs spread across 80 countries. Moreover, their club projects have been translated into 15 languages for reaching children with different native languages.

Location: Founded in UK. Now it’s international

Technologies focused: Scratch, HTML, CSS, Python.

Price: Free

“Code Club believe that all children should have the opportunity to learn to code, no matter who they are or where they come from. We run volunteer-led coding clubs around the world, using fun and creative learning materials to inspire the next generation of digital makers.” –Clare Sutcliffe, CEO of The Code Club.

Conclusion

That’s all for now. Livecoding.tv always see students from non-profit organization streaming their work exercises. They are keen to share their knowledge with the audience and that’s when everyone is benefited. As a student, you can see others work on assignment and learn more about what the non-profit organization has to offer.

Watch Lokia27 working on exercises from Khan Academy. Check the video below.

Also, check out logan99, working on front-end development certificate from FreeCodeCamp.

The list of a coding non-profit organization is changing the world slowly. Some of them are targeted towards special learners such as autism patients, and others are focused on underrepresented sections of the society and industry.

So, what you think about them? Have you joined a coding non-profit before? If yes, how was your experience? Let us know in the comment section below.